Sears Earns Pair of Weekly Awards

Justin Sears (dspics.com)

Nov 12, 2013

Honored By Ivy League, CollegeSportsMadness.com

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Throughout the preseason, James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball at Yale, raved about the play of sophomore forward Justin Sears. It certainly seems to have carried over to the regular season. Sears, who scored 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the 93-77 victory over Central Connecticut on Saturday, was named the Ivy League Player of the Week both by the league office and CollegeSportsMadness.com.

Sears was 10-of-17 from the field, blocked four shots and added a steal in 33 minutes against Central. He did most of his damage in the second half, scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, as the Bulldogs rallied from a 17-point deficit. Yale trailed 63-46 with 14 minutes left, but outscored the Blue Devils the rest of the way.

Sears continued his fine play yesterday against UConn, although by then he had already secured the two awards. Against the 19th-ranked Huskies, he scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive end.

In his rookie year last winter, Sears was the fourth highest scoring (9.5 ppg.) freshman in the Ivy League. Overall he finished sixth in field goal percentage (.489) and eighth in rebounding (5.3 rpg.) and grabbed 78 offensive rebounds, the second most in the league.

Sears, a Plainfield, N.J., native, will return to his home state when the Bulldogs play at Rutgers on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.